So far Season 5 has begun each episode with vignettes from Jesus’ time with the disciples in the Upper Room. We see them seated at tables. We hear Jesus teaching, some from the synoptic gospels, quite a bit from John’s “Upper Room Discourse.” Each week much time is spent on Jesus’ prediction that one of the disciples will betray him. All vehemently deny it even while when apart, they seek to discover the guilty party to be.

As is characteristic of The Chosen, Jesus goes into more detail explaining his words and actions than what we see in the gospels. When instituting the eucharist he prays (and I paraphrase here and elsewhere since I cannot write notes as quickly as I’d like), “Tonight we celebrate your redemption from sin because of me.” He explains, “Normally wine allows us to remember the blood of the lamb spread on the doorposts, but now this is my blood shed for you.”

Through all this Jesus is clearly emotional, nearly breaking down at times. He knows what’s coming. He’s like to avoid it. He keeps treading the way to the cross anyway.

We run into Nicodemus again. He’s confused about why Jesus is “turning allies into enemies.” He takes his calling to lead and protect Israel from false prophets very seriously. He’d like to be able to reject Jesus as one of those false prophets. But between what he’s seen for himself and what his spy has reported, he’s seen and heard too much to do that.

Judas finally meets up with Caiaphas to bargain his price for betrayal. Judas thinks he’s in control of the situation, that he knows what he’s doing, but he’s out of his depth. When asked why he, a disciple, is betraying Jesus, he says, “I do believe Jesus is most likely the Messiah.” His idea is that Jesus just needs the right kind of push, the kind he’ll provide, to openly reveal himself Messiah and lead Israel against its enemies.

In the background Atticus is playing multiple sides in his game to get rid of Jesus. What he really thinks isn’t clear to me. Could he be the Roman who says, “Truly this man is the son of god” at the crucifixion? If he is, what would this man who invokes “Bacchus” and other pagan gods mean by the title?

Two interesting choices I noticed. First, the writers have Nicodemus refer to Jewish leaders as “Israelis,” a clear anachronism. Second, Nicodemus uses the idiom, “The die is cast,” a line attributed to Julius Caesar.